This class was very interesting. There were 5 of us in the class. We all took a spot far apart from each other. We had a crate and mat for the dog. It started with connecting with your dog. Thinking about good things your dog does while touching and messaging him. Then each person took there dog to a small fenced in area. You were to bring you dog in and see how long it takes for you dog to look at you. I thought this was very interesting. Some dogs went in and immediately looked at their owners for what they were going to do next. Some dogs took a long time to look at their owner. They were to busy looking around and sniffing the area.
Most of the work was done at your crate. We worked on taking the leash off and it being a non-event. You would get a hand full of treats and take the leash off and put the whole hand full of treats on the ground. Then step away from you dog. After the dog was done eating, he should look up for you, coming toward you. Click and treat. That keeps the dog looking at you for the rewards and not rewarding himself when the leash comes off. We also worked on walking with the dog on leash, click and treat for looking at you. Then while walking, drop the leash and keep walking. Click and treat for the dog looking at you. Meagan talked about default behavior. We practice walking to a gate, wait for the dog to offer a default behavior at the gate. Click and treat. Then again once outside the fence. You don't move through the gate until the dog offers you a default behavior. Guiness wouldn't go out the gate. It was the gate by the car. ( Hmmm, do you see a pattern with my dogs. LoL) So we had to move to another gate that wasn't near the car. We also worked on the grab the collar game. Shelties don't like this game. When you reach for a sheltie's collar the play hand dodge. So this is a good game to play with both my shelties.
At home Ive been working on Miley and the leash. Ive been trying to only bring the leash out to play tug with and then put it up. Ive also brought it out for fun things. She gets very excited when its time to eat. So before she can eat, I'm making her put her leash on. She also really likes seeing the ferrets. So again , before she is allowed to go do that, she has to put her leash on. Hopefully , she will see the leash as leading to fun. Also Meagan told me not to let her run around when I go to the training field or even at home when getting ready to practice. Treat her like I would if I were at a trial. Put her in her crate or keep her on leash. That way she know exactly what to expect.
Thanks for everyone advice on getting Miley to like the leash. Also someone asked me where I got the leash and collar. It was off of ebay. Agility Q www.agilityq.com
A Walktober summary
1 day ago
7 comments:
That is an interesting class. I would like to try that at home with Sizzle. He is a bit wild at the moment. Thank you for sharing your experienced.
Some people in my agility class, bring their "mat" to class, so their dog can "go their place".
Sounds like you got a lot out of that class.
I've been click/treating Oreo looking at me when we're in stressful situations for him for about 3 weeks. It seems to be working well. He looks at me A LOT now.
After more than a year of obedience I can tell Katie to "watch me" and she will move into the heel position and stare up at me. That's been very useful in a variety of situations.
So is there any of those things you would want to work on in an agility class? I am teaching the agility class this summer and Alicia asked me to throw in some controlled unleashed and some of that stuff goes over really well with a regular class and some of the stuff which I think is really valuable doesnt go over as well, LOL
Kathy, I guess it would depend on what type of dogs were in the class. Youve seen the dogs that as soon as the leash comes off they start running around and cant get focused. So taking the leash on and off using the treat and making the leash coming off an non-issue would really help them. I probably need to read the book to give you better help. Getting your dog to look at you is very important. Youve seen the dog going thru a novice course and does fantastic but never looked at their handler. Ok for novice but what about open and excellent? When I say, "mi" , I want a head turn. I want her to know she needs info from me, look at me. But she doesnt need to come to me. ( we are still working on this) . If I think of some more, I'll let you know. Diana
Mom read the book twice and thinks it's really good, but fortunately for me, she hasn't made me do any of the stuff yet! :)
A Control Unleashed class along with reading the book would be awesome!
Funny, was going to say what Meagan said. I used to not leash Whisper during practice and we'd set up and run. I started practicing leash off, leash on during each and every run regardless. It helped a lot.
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